Training Update

Training UpdateLast night I had a session with a new personal trainer, Andy. He’d been recommended to me by a friend at the gym as somebody who specialized in running. I have to say, he was a bit of a spunk. (For the Yanks, that means he was a hottie.) Thick as two planks, though. (He was dumb.) He asked how long I had til the race, to which I answered 48 days. He was like, “So that’s, what, four weeks?” Me: “Try closer to seven.” But he was pretty.

So anyway, Andy thinks that I should aim to be running 12K two weeks before the race. (This is slightly counter to other things I’ve read. Hmmm.) Then I just rest and do light training until the big event. He did recognize that my biggest problem is going to be maintaining the mental concentration to run for 70+ minutes. The program he gave me is four days a week: one day of indoor cardio for the full length of time I’d be running the race (i.e. treadmill for 40 minutes, cross-trainer for 30), one day of general weight training, one day of running the whole distance outside, and one day of light weights followed by a yoga class. I think eventually I’m supposed to work in another day of running too, but I can’t even think about that at the moment.

The yoga is to strengthen my lower back, which has been giving me progressively more pain. He thinks I may have something out of alignment, which is why I’m booked in to see a physiotherapist tomorrow. I can’t wait to hear the medical equivalent of “You run funny.” I started the program last night with 40 minutes on the treadmill and 20 on the cross-trainer. My legs feel like jelly today and I somehow pulled a muscle in my shoulder. (I can only imagine how funny I must look running if I’m flopping about so badly as to constantly injure myself.) But I’m on my way!

4 Comments

mark has a t-shirt with ‘great hunk of spunk’ written on it that his parents gave him for his birthday. he’s worn it a few times in austin. my sisters like to tease him about it. i don’t think i really knew it meant hottie. pretty funny.

Eileen

i dig the term spunk, i’m going to have to add that one into my slang repitoire. however, i’d do more outside training and less treadmill if i were you. outdoor running helps condition the little muscles used for balance, avoiding potholes, etc, that you don’t use on a treadmill, plus, 40 min on a treadmill is too f$#*ing boring. the glasses look great, by the way.

I’m a little suspect of your trainer’s plan. Shouldn’t you be working up to those distances / times gradually? Injuring yourself isn’t going to help you prepare for this race. And I presume that light training those last 2 weeks is light running. I can’t imagine running a 10K after 2 weeks off from running. No long runs, sure, but I’d want to be running at least 3 days a week of light, easy runs.

Yeah, it took me a little while to get over my nervous giggles when using it, Tricia. 🙂

I’m a little suspect of his plan too. Don’t worry, though; I’m not following it to the letter. I’m also DEFINITELY taking a little time to work up to the distance. If I tried to run 10K this weekend my legs would probably break!